


“We’re Getting the Gang Back Together”

by PhilidelphiaAsh



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 08:27:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12428850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhilidelphiaAsh/pseuds/PhilidelphiaAsh
Summary: Robin’s moving back to New York, Barney still doesn’t have a real job, Lily’s along for the ride (for now), Ted and Tracy aren’t burdened by illness, and Marshall may just get to run for office again.DEFINITE CANON DIVERGENCE, THE LAST EPISODE NEVER HAPPENED AND I LIKE IT THAT WAY.





	“We’re Getting the Gang Back Together”

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter’s a bit short, I haven’t written since high school, but this is mostly just to cure my own boredom so this should be fun.

“Barney, I don’t know if I can do this.” Robin’s stomach was a tangle of mismatched knots, butterflies, and what she was pretty sure was last night’s chalupa mixed with that morning’s coffee. She was pacing back and forth, her heels making abrupt taps against the linoleum floors of the green room. “This is the biggest moment of my entire career. What if I choke?”

“That’s not going to happen.” His voice was grainy, just a little distorted, but it was his. There was something comforting about even just hearing his disembodied voice, Robin hadn’t seen her husband for a week since she’d flown back into New York for this audition. She nervously picked at the cuff of her blazer with her freehand while she pressed the phone a little harder against her cheek. “You’re Robin freaking Sherbatsky. There’s absolutely no way that those schmucks aren’t going to want you.”

“This isn’t some backwater news station, Barney.” She clipped, a bit of acid creeping into her voice. Her free hand made it’s way to her forehead, rubbing away an imagined headache. “This is a full time co-anchor spot on The Situation Room. They don’t let just anyone take over for Wolf Blitzer.” 

“You’re not ‘just anyone’. You have done some amazing things with your career, you’ve worked in I-don’t-even-know how many countries. Don’t you remember that video reel we sent in? You’re a shoe-in!”

“International news is one thing, but I have no experience with domestic politics! I don’t even know how I got this interview in the first place!”

“Hey now,” Barney started, and she could almost hear the faux-earnest look that had crept its way across his face. “Who here has spent five hours with Lily folding up leaflets for Marshall’s first campaign?”

“That doesn’t count, Barney.” She groaned, turning around and letting herself collapse into the massively uncomfortable chair that was sat near the door. “I mean practical reporting experience.”

“Who cares, Robin? Do you even remember why we’re together in the first place?”

“What does that have to do with-“

“We’re together right now because when Robin Sherbatsky knows what she wants, there is nothing in this planet that can stop her from getting it. It didn’t matter to you that I was one of the sleaziest, most disgusting, and intimidatingly handsome-“

“Barney…”

“Men that you had ever met. It didn’t matter that our last relationship ended with my looking like an even more uncomfortable version of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and your looking line you’d just crawled out of a grave. Hell, it didn’t even matter to you that you thought I was about to get engaged to your worst enemy. All that mattered to you was that you wanted me, and look how that ended up.” There was a brief moment of silence, punctuated only with a few sniffles coming from both ends of the phone. “You are the most tenacious, courageous, and all around bad-ass woman I have ever known, and those producers would have to be blind, deaf, and complete idiots not to see how amazingly talented you are.”

A knock at the door broke the silence that followed and Robin turned to see a tall, skinny brunette in a pencil skirt and harsh glasses looking down their nose at her.

“The producers are ready to see you now.” She said, looking at once bored and rushed and altogether inconvenienced.

“Barney…. I’ve got to go.” Robin said into the phone as she stood and straightened her own skirt and blazer. 

“Kick some ass!” He said while she reached over to grab her bag. “I love you.”

“I love you too… thank you, Barney.” She said, stepping out to follow the woman who was already a good ten steps ahead of her. Her knees still shook and she still felt dwarfed in comparison to the greats who had once walked this hall, but her stomach had begun to untangle itself and she felt herself standing a little bit taller the further she made it towards the door at the end of the hall. It felt a little less like failure and a little more like destiny. “I still don’t know if I can do this, but I’m damn sure going to try.”


End file.
